First Meeting, Last Farewell (2020)

My Favourite Chinese Dramas of 2020

This drama has just ended timely for the year for me to pick as my favorite C Drama of 2020. Everything I love in a drama is here; touching human situations, unforgettable music score (a sucker for that), interesting story developments, great looking casts and stunningly beautiful prop and cinematography. The story and filming location is based in Dali, Yunnan which is my favorite province in China (I'm a Chinese Malaysian). You may notice the high quality setting and gorgeous interior design which I treasure a lot in the drama.

The first few episodes may be a bit slow for some people especially with the dreamy location of Dali's lake district and laid back, vacation vibe of Erhai lakeside town. I was soon drawn into the series when I noticed the dual perspectives, that go on until episode 14., have been cleverly done . The whole drama wins me over with its non-predictable plots and three dimensional characters; there is no totally evil main villain here.

The two male leads are very handsome and act brilliantly while the female lead is beautiful in a mature and graceful way. All the supporting casts also give excellent performance. Zhan Yu's character is empathetic and you will be happy to rewatch his scenes in the finale. This is one drama you will not think 40 episodes are too long because many characters are given enough screen time to make an impression including the adorable interaction of Zhao Ting Hui's (2nd Male Lead) subordinate cop in the last few episodes.

I hope other Chinese directors take note of this drama by not showing spoilers in the intro song and use original voice which make the watching experience so much better. In one of the climatic scenes involving a bomb, you could hear the music score changes from poignant to heart throbbing to heroic. The brilliant music scores move me many times to tears throughout the series and the few songs featured are also very melodic.

The last 15 minutes of the finale could have been rearranged to please more people but since this drama has been quite different from others, I guess the director wants it this way.

Thank you director for the fantastic series! I will remember the leads fondly and look out for Li Qing's (Zhan Yu in the character) future work. I was pleasantly surprised to see extra scenes of him!

PS: This has been a strange year for C Drama where my favorites are all modern dramas; this drama, Ordinary Glory, Hikaru No Go and 安家 as I gave up many period dramas with childish leads and ridiculous cross dressing FL.

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One of the hidden gems of 2020 with unique storytelling, beautiful music, and amazing acting

I haven't watched many really good and captivating Chinese dramas this year, but this one made the cut!

To Love has a unique way of storytelling as it shows the perspectives of both Xiao Ou and Yan Jin so viewers can piece the full story together for the first 14 episodes. Then the remaining episodes continue with the present timeline as the leads work to solve the murder of Zhan Yu. The writer does an excellent job of introducing and developing the story and slowly divulging more facts. I am happy to say that the writer does not disappoint with the pacing even though this is a 40-episode drama. The drama shows that every character has their faults, that no one can be perfect, as some show personal growth. As for the ending... it may not be the ending many of us wished for, but I think the writer did well to stick to the original novel. If you are hardcore HE watchers though, this may not be a drama for you.

Anyways, the directing and cinematography are really well done, transitioning smoothly between scenes and creating an element of suspense/drama too. It is clear that they spent a good amount of money on producing this drama as the locations are beautiful and the sets and props are very realistic. There is also barely any PPL :) And the soundtrack is SO BEAUTIFUL, matching perfectly to the mood of every scene. Props to whoever decided the BGM because the score maximizes the tone and emotions of each scene. The music definitely helped pull at my heart and draw some tears to my eyes. Another thing worth mentioning is that this drama does not have any dubbing (except for the "live" singing) and kept the real voices of every actor!! I wish every drama could do this, so I don't have to see anymore cringey dubbing.

On that note, the leads have AMAZING chemistry. They look so cute on screen and the dating rumors make it even more so! I have seen Li Geng Xin in Princess Agents so I know he's a pretty good actor, so I have no complaints in the way he portrayed Yan Jin with a good amount of confident, cocky, and sweet. I love his bromance interactions with Zhao Ting Hui (even though ZTH was frustrating at first) and Cheng Rui Min. The lead actress is a new face to me, but she is pretty good, so no complaints with her either. Her emotional range is as good as LGX, with her heartbroken teary eyes. The supporting actor playing Zhan Yu is great too. He is a relatively new actor but I can see his potential. Not only does he have a handsome appearance but his acting is good too, drawing my empathy for his character's unfortunate family background. I'll definitely keep an eye out for his future projects.

And that concludes my review. I hope this was relatively helpful to you who is reading this.
To all of our first encounters and last partings... :')

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